Tana Talks Tech: Protecting Your Home From the Known Unknowns

Dear reader,

I want you to imagine with me for a moment. Imagine you’re at home, watching television with your family. There’s popcorn on the coffee table and leftover pizza in the fridge. It seems like a perfect night. Your kids are laughing hysterically at something that just happened in the movie. But you missed the joke because out of the corner of your eye you saw flashing blue and red lights.

The next morning you wake up to a news report. Your neighbor’s 12 year-old-son went missing last night. What do you do next? Do you leave the door unlocked anymore? Do you let your children play outside past dusk? No. You’re probably going to go buy a new deadbolt. Why? Because you’re concerned for their safety. Your neighbor’s son might have been returned safely, but there’s no guarantee that it won’t happen to your children next.

Now I want you to imagine another story with me.

You go into work one Monday morning and hear about a massive, world-wide attack that left millions of people locked out of their computers. Some unknown group hacked into their computers and encrypted all of their files. Then they demanded a ransom payment. And it was all because they didn’t upgrade their software one time – they forgot to lock their door.

What do you do next? Do you continue doing business like you’ve always done, or do you take a long look at how safe your computer is, how secure your files are and how often you change your passwords?

Most people would answer that they’d take a good long look at how they’re running their businesses. And that might be true. They might look at how they’re doing things and say “good enough.”

Good enough is only good enough until it isn’t, though. What happens when a new strain of the virus comes out? What happens when hackers become bolder and are more willing to take on more challenges? What happens if you become their target? Are you prepared?

The worst thing you can do after an attack like this is nothing. You have to take action. You have to address your weak points and take extra precautions.

If this were your home, you’d buy more deadbolts. But in your home away from home, you need to up your security in other ways.